Paul Bunyan

My littlest sister and I were sitting at the kid table together finishing up the last few possibly edible kernels of popcorn from our family's spontaneous "party".

Blue: There was a popcorn blizzard in the book I was reading today.
Me: Oh, really. That's neat!

We were quiet for a moment.

Blue: What I don't understand is how he got so tall...
Me (realizing she had been reading our book about Paul Bunyan): Oh, well that's just a funny story.
Blue: But they said that you can see the Grand Canyon 'til this day.
Me: Paul Bunyan didn't make the Grand Canyon. God did with the flood. People like to make up silly stories about it just for fun.

She nodded sagely. Then, remembering another funny thing similar to it, she added: Scrat didn't make the Grand Canyon either. God did with the flood.

She's got it down. Deep thoughts. ; )

Gluten-Free Shortbread

I've been experimenting with using coconut flour for gluten-free, nut-free baking. My first project (that turned out surprisingly very nicely!) was a batch of miniature cupcakes.

This success, leftover cream from someone's birthday ice cream, and an abundance of frozen strawberries led me to want to experiment more. I decided I would make us gluten-free, nut-free, coconut flour shortbread with whipped cream and strawberry sauce for toppings. (That's a mouthful to say and to eat!) I would make it for breakfast. It would be awesome. I took this recipe but made sure to read the comments and eventually decided (after a couple of tests) that it needed extra butter and an egg. But some people said two eggs and some said one. And was I supposed to sift my coconut flour? It didn't say. So...RESEARCH! It was fun. And crazy. If at first you don't succeed, Google again. I found a great article about coconut flour in general, egg ratios, and sifting. Hooray! It's already hard in the first place to find an alternative flour shortbread recipe that takes just coconut flour and no expensive-as-ground-gold almond flour. If you find one it takes honey or maple syrup. Bummer! We were all out of alternative sweeteners, so I'd have to use refined sugar. People have filled the internet up with tricks for switching from cane sugar to honey but never vice versa. Except this article. Hooray again! (I just read the tips part, so I can't recommend the whole article.) Anyway, it turned out very yummy and successful; and I'll share my version of the recipe in a minute here.

I'm pretty happy with this alternative flour thing, but a couple words of advice before you get started. 1. Follow the measurements exactly. Coconut flour is a wild animal. 2. Make sure your flour is finely ground. Each of these recipes failed when I used a coarser flour (or the wrong one). 3. Coconut four and almond flour bought in bulk can be the same texture, color, and even weight. Careful, this is an expensive mistake to make since they act totally differently so there's no salvaging your recipe. ; ) 4. When in doubt--RESEARCH!

Coconut Flour Shortbread Cookies
You will need:
6 TBS coconut flour, sifted
5 TBS melted butter, cooled
1 egg
2 TBS sugar
1 1/2 tsp. milk
1/4 tsp. vanilla

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Mix all ingredients until not lumpy. (Coconut flour can be weird!) Roll balls and arrange on a lightly greased baking sheet. Smash with a fork. Bake for 8-10 minutes or until golden brown. Cool completely before removing from sheet. Serve with strawberry sauce and whipped cream.

And if you like videos... 

My younger sister Pearl made one of how to make it!

And whipped cream...

And strawberry sauce! (Yes, those are my clumsy hands.) ; )

Enjoy!

Grateful for 2015

Wow, I can hardly believe that 2015 is already over! Every other blog post you’ll read this week will probably start with those same words, but isequelh it’s the truth—time flies. There has been so much to be grateful for this past year, even the fact that this year happened. The world was supposed to end in 2012, so don’t forget that we are all miracles, folks.

It would never do to try to exhaust everything awesome that happened in the last 365 days. My brain would steam and yours would fall out your ear. So I’ll just cover the categories and please forgive me if I leave something out. ; )

I’m so grateful for…

• My family. The more I live the more I learn that my family is awesome. They are my built in friends, Romans, countrymen, critics, laugh track, comedy show, iron sharpeners (‘cause I have a pastor-dad!), and friends. Nobody else in the world would giggle at 11 o’clock at night about dropping flashlights or understand the joke “the eggs rolled off the ceiling”. (We don’t even understand that one.) Nobody else in the world would properly appreciate the term Calminian or be able to go on all day about the Trinity and constitutional rights at the same time. And definitely no one else would die laughing over our brother’s ability to mimic the voice of everyone in our family and beyond.
• More of my family. Yeah, I’m talking about the cute chubby ones and their chauffeurs. The Chap and the Chum and their tiny brother who is trying to learn to crawl so he can join them in throwing all their toys out the bedroom window and hosing each other down when Dad and Mom aren’t looking. They lived with us for five months this year in which we got to witness Chum getting un-chubby enough to be able to walk, Chap learning to do fist-bumps and say all sorts of intelligent things, and their fabulous brother being born. Then we got to help move them into their own little house, and altogether it’s been altogether amazing. ; )  The chauffeurs are pretty amazing too, by the way. Perry is great for calling and telling all about the three mile thick novel you are never going to write or getting all the advice you could ever need whether you want it or not. ; P (Hi, Perry! I know you are reading this! This part is for you!) And Tyler is awesome to bake for and shoot with Nerf darts.
• Church family. Since we started out on that infamously crazy road trip to move down here a year ago, they have been so welcoming and helpful. It’s been great to learn and grow and laugh and love with them all. Probably my two favorite things I’ve done with them all this year were our church picnic in April and caroling this past Christmas Eve.
• Friends. Most of my friends are at my current church, but if I didn’t talk about this category I’d be leaving out the special people back in the Northwest and my pen-pals far and near. All of these people have enriched my life so much.
• Media. I don’t mean the tv/social networking/newspaper kind. If you’ve been reading my blog long enough, you’ve probably noticed that this year has been a book explosion for me. There are definitely too many books for me to mention; but my favorites this year have been Dreamlander, Gift from the Storm, The Green Ember, its prequel The Blackstar of Kingston, The Warden and the Wolf King, and the Aggie’s Inheritance series. It’s not just books that I’ve been enjoying this year either. Andrew Peterson’s albums “After All These Years” and “The Burning Edge of Dawn” have been used by God to draw me so much closer to Him, and Handel’s “Messiah” is going to be a forever favorite now that I’ve heard it live. Two of my favorite movies this year are probably “Inside Out” and “The Stratton Story” (Jimmy Stewart—yup, yup!); but “Cinderella” isn’t on there just because I still haven’t seen it yet. (Goals for this year…) ; )
• Projects. Very sorry to bore you with more of “Kate’s Nerd Stuff”, but this year has been awesome for writing and test reading. I’ve written three short stories, two 10k words stories that I like tolerably well, and I’m halfway through another. I’ve also gotten to test read three manuscripts this year, which is always fun because it’s been rare for me to get to read something by someone who’s living and breathing right now and is asking my opinion. ; ) I love working out my worldview and imagination in story form and the sharpening from fellow authors is pretty awesome. The two Rebekah’s and the lovely people at Noble Novels have been a big part of that process this last year. (And those funny phone calls with Perry!) ; )
• Little things. A mini muffin tin; family celebrations; our sweet dog Ella (Nana if there ever was one!); sunny, breezy days; boots (I just got some for Christmas!!!); driving two hours just for the world’s best Mexican food; teaching a little friend from church how to say my name; old pictures; swings… There’s so much more, but you get the idea. Aren’t you proud that I didn’t accidentally sneak more books into this category? ; )
• Lessons and love. I have big problems with fear. I have big problems with change. I have big problems with adoring people but not wanting to talk to them because they are just too scary. I have big problems with controlling my imagination. I have problems with trust. I still have problems with crying when I smash a dish and then getting all defensive. I have problems with managing to get everything done. But when God said, “Let there be a Katie”, He knew there would be a lot of problems with her. Her teeth would be crooked; she would be afraid of the dark; she would love Him one moment and forget Him the next. God knew all of that. He loved her unconditionally. He sent His Son to atone for all of her sins. He sent His Holy Spirit to dwell in her heart to conform her to His image, and He gave her lessons this year to teach her. And someday, when all things are made new so will Katie. Right now she’ll listen to Andrew Peterson’s songs “The Rain Keeps Falling” and “Rejoice”. She’ll talk about herself in the third person so she can tell her blog readers about herself while pretending that that problematic person is someone else. ; ) And she’ll strive to love people and listen to the Holy Spirit. 

All of that is why I am grateful. What about you? 

Baking with Absolutely Nothing

We've had a wild weekend, so today is a catch-up day and a birthday celebration all in one. ;) I'll tell you all about it later, so for now I leave you with this adventure from a few weeks ago...

It all started when I decided I should try to bake something out of absolutely nothing. Well, not quite nothing. Just no eggs, no butter (or at least hardly any to speak of), no whipping cream, and no baking chocolate. I spent over an hour searching the internet for recipes that had the keywords “eggless”, “lemon”, and “cream cheese”. (It’s pretty rare for us to have cream cheese. The only reason we did was because I forgot we had some and didn’t use it on our bagels.) ; )

If you’re eggless you’re supposedly vegan, and they don’t use cream cheese. If you are using cream cheese, you’re probably going to make cheese cake; and you definitely need cream. And if you want to switch over from lemon to something with chocolate, you of course need baking chocolate.

For once, the internet had nothing. Nothing for my unique circumstances, that is. I did find a few recipes to save for later when we finally grocery shopped and it was the proper time between sweets again.

So I got very daring. I decided to make something up.

Cutting my precious loaf of cream cheese in half, just in case one of my experiments turned out super disgusting, I made a lemony-spready-thingy out of part of it. It didn’t turn out the bestest ever (baking gives me lapses in grammar); but what I did with the other half of the cream cheese turned out pretty amazing. Which is nothing short of a miracle, since I had nothing to go on; and I have a reputation of being a walking kitchen disaster.

Taking the other half of the cream cheese, I whipped it up in the blender with some powdered sugar, milk, and cocoa powder. (No baking chocolate!) It turned out really chocolate-y, and cream cheese-y, and lapses-in-grammar-y with just the perfect hint of sweetness. And my taste testers had very positive things to say. So far so good.

Then I got really creative. I’ve recently been drooling over a book on mini pies, so I immediately decided that this pudding stuff wouldn’t stay pudding stuff. I had been fortunate enough to find a few pie crust recipes that didn’t take oil (I was searching sour cream ones before I found out that the tub we had in the frig was two months out of code); but I also was advised by dear Mom that that wouldn’t be the right thing for the filling I had made. Think, think, think. No graham crackers. We buy those about as often as Shemitah and the blood moons line up.

We had some Nutter Butter cookies in the pantry which I decided would have to do, and I gleefully smashed them up with a rolling pin. Taking the half stick of butter left in the house (it wasn’t enough for anything else anyway), I mixed it with the cookie crumbs and a bit of powdered sugar into a gooey, icky-looking dough.

Don’t laugh, but I greased three spaces of our twelve count muffin tin (that’s all I could make!) and pressed the crust into it. After it had baked in the oven for a while, I took it out and was surprised to find that the crust had risen and completely filled up the muffin spaces. So much for filling. I really should have looked up how to do this. Doing the only thing possible, I smashed the middle of each down with a spoon while it was still hot and left them to cool until I felt I could take them out without breaking them.

They broke a little when I took them out; but that pleased the taste testers (who thought this part tasted good as well), and I was able to paste most of it back together with the filling. Carefully spooning in the filling so that the walls of cookie would not crumble, I admired my work and asked for a bit of Dad and Mom’s chocolate syrup for their coffee to drizzle on top. Now it looked like something real; not just crazy Kate’s unnamed experiment that might turn out to be a real treat or the new atom bomb.

I put it in the refrigerator until we ate it the next day. There was only three, remember? Perfect number for our family to divide up. Everyone ended up with an allotted piece, and the taste tasters were satisfied again. (There were even offers to buy the pieces that belonged to people who couldn’t eat them yet.) I was surprised, delighted, and blessed. I’ve ruined so many real recipes before (or at least almost ruined them) that who could have guessed a complete experiment would turn out so well?

I really enjoyed baking this dessert out of absolutely nothing (or almost nothing, anyway) and really enjoyed eating it. Next time, I’ll use all the cream cheese, more Nutter Butters, and possibly a mini muffin tin so the “recipe” stretches farther. And I’ll look up parbaking or whatever it’s called. ; )

Now, what do I do with that lemon frosting stuff? Hmm…

And isn’t amazing how God can orchestrate something as small as forgetting to use the cream cheese so that I had it later when I wanted to bake something?

Thanksgiving Sermon

Since  it's finally handiwork weather, we've been listening to read-alouds and sermons. The height of fun. ; ) Here's my favorite sermon currently, especially applicable to Thanksgiving season. I hope you are as blessed by it as I was!

A Camping We Did Go

Last weekend, my family and I had the awesome adventure of going to our church's family camp together! Since it was an hour or so north of here, we got to enjoy a taste of greenness once again. The best parts, though, were sharing a cabin duplex with Perry and Tyler (and the BABIES!!!!!!) and getting to know our church family better.

After packing way too much clothing; gathering card games; baking and popping food (I made these cookies and popped four huge batches of popcorn. I even used up all the coconut oil and melted the lid just to make it more fun.); finishing up the sermon (Dad did that part. We only pack things and melt things.); collecting random forgotten things; and smashing it into the back of the van (Paul saying his typical, "Hey guys, don't open that one door. Everything will come out.), we started off on our adventure. Wow, that was a run-on sentence if ever I saw one!

Some of my lovely road-trip buddies. (My angel mother is in the passenger seat, but since she is shining like the sun you can't tell she's there.) We are veteran road-trippers now from our move down here last winter, so an hour doesn't feel like much. ; ) Dad had an awesome time pointing out real and imagined landmarks to us, and we kept ourselves clapping and bouncing with the PianoGuys.

The rest of my lovely (????) buddies. Weird angle because I'm sharing a seat with them, but you get the idea that it was pretty fun. ; ) (Oh, is Paul an angel too? I'll leave that for you to decide... No, he is an angel for sharing a seat with all the copious amounts of bedding we brought.)

 A little while later (we used to drive this far to go grocery shopping). we arrived at Friendly Pines just in time to throw everything into the cabin and run off to the cafeteria for dinner. After that came a chapel session, organizing our cabiny-messy-thingy, and games in the cafeteria until the wee hours of the morning.

Next morning we all walked to church. (It should always be this way, shouldn't it?) It was beautiful outside!!! At just about every session of chapel our family enjoyed mixing with Perry and Tyler's little family and the H. family as well.

Our fantastic little neighbors. They were the best thing about the weekend!! Unfortunately, they were so cute that we had a really hard time not laughing out loud during the sermon.

Especially when this one sneezed so hard he almost fell over...or when his older brother dumped a toy dump truck load of dirt into my lap...or when the camp cat startled one of them out of their wits when it came scampering by. Yeah, pretty cute. ; ) Don't you just love those funny eyes???

The theme of the weekend was revival, and Dad chose a really amazing aspect of the whole topic for his sermon Saturday morning. I HIGHLY suggest you listen to his sermon "Don't Lose Heart". It was very encouraging!!! (Special thanks to Anna for taking the picture because I couldn't see Dad very well through some people's heads.)

Saturday is probably everyone's hands-down favorite day of camp. That's because of....

FIELD GAMES!!!! I watched the first few games from the sidelines, but after a while I wished I had joined in. ; ) This game was a crazy relay race of trying to bat a balloon down the field without popping it. Add to that an ornery breeze and some surprisingly sharp grass--you get the picture. ; )

Another great one was passing a hula hoop around a circle of people without letting go of each other's hands. That was pretty crazy, but a high-five to everyone who managed it especially those wearing skirts.

We didn't get pictures of my favorite relay race (also the first game I played), but it was pretty fun/funny! All of us players threw our shoes in a huge, stinky pile at one end of the field and lined up on the other. You've probably guessed the objective--run across the field, find your shoes, cram them on, and make it back to your team without them falling off. There were some pretty hilarious stunts too, like my brother-in-law throwing his best friends' shoes out of the pile so they would have to go farther to find them. Thumbs up, Tyler! It was pretty hard to find my shoes (since apparently brown is the most common color); and I found myself wishing for one of the first times ever that I had flip-flops. ; ) I'm not sure how the scoring came out, but my team was awesome!! ; )

The tug-o'-wars were awesome!! This picture is kids against adults. You'll find me on the kids' side because this was taken before a couple of older girls and I realized that we belonged on the other team. ; P We lost the first one since our church is mostly children, but we won the second! ; )

That's my little buddy!

The rest of the weekend consisted of more hanging out (I did a little exploring with my friend Hannah and chatted some with her older sister), chapel sessions (I loved the history of the laymen's revival), an amazing bonfire (S'mores. That's what we exist for.), and amazing games in the cafeteria. (Some of my family members brought crafts to do with everyone, but I never got around to doing them.) Those times of all sitting around together laughing and talking or trying to beat each other at Dutch Blitz were my favorite times of all. That's when I got to know people (and sometimes got to beat them too!). ; )

Hanging out with the H. girls was my younger sisters' favorite thing about their first family camp (that they can remember, at least). I got to hang out with them a lot of the time which was so much fun! We visited their favorite spot at camp (nicknamed "the L tree"  for it's unusual shape), visited each  other's cabins (this picture was taken in ours), and sat together during church and the group picture. ;)

Altogether, it was an amazing time of fellowship and learning from God's word! And I highly suggest you all check out my Dad's sermon. ;)

Good Days

Summer is leaving, and I'm not very sorry at all. Next comes good weather, our church's family camp, then Thanksgiving, then Christmas. What's not to like? Still, these days have been good, and there is plenty to be grateful for...

I'm grateful for...

• The weather. I already mentioned it, but it's worth saying again. This Northwestern girl isn't quite done acclimatizing, so the cool(er) weather is a welcome relief. ; )
• Birds. I peeked out the window the other day and saw pigeons and some little brown birds (yeah, I don't know their name...) gathered together in our front yard. I had never realized before that there are beautiful birds even here! I'm just used to seeing gray mourning doves and nothing else. ; )
• Old pictures. The other day I was working on the huge project of putting eight years' worth of pictures on a USB drive. It was so wonderful to remember the times we've been blessed with. I found I had even forgotten some of the things we had done earlier this year, and it was very nice to be reminded. It also amazing to see how much my wonderful nephews have grown!
• Books to read... I've been reading so much lately it's been a ton of fun! Reviews coming when I can. ;P
• I've also been doing a lot of reading for our history studies. We are learning about Egypt right now, and I'm so excited to see how the Exodus fits into everything. 
• Christian movies. It seems like there have been a ton more good ones coming out lately than ever before. I got to see "War Room" earlier this month and absolutely loved it!!! It was very encouraging and inspiring, and I can't wait for the rest of my family to see it so we can discuss it. ; ) My dad bought "Polycarp", and the older ones in our family watched it together. It was a slower movie than I am used to, but it was very good!
• Nephews! Since their little family moved out, we haven't gotten to see them as much; but Perry sends enough pictures and hilarious stories to keep us alive until their next visit. ; )
• How much faster chores are lately. That sounds really weird, but now that I'm a "big girl" chores that were painfully slow to do in that past get done in a snap. So much more free time... ;P
• Shortbread--three flavors--plain, spiced, chocolate. 'Nuff said.
• Music playing all over the house. Sometimes three different songs at once because everyone has their own mp3 player. ; ) Walk into the kitchen--encouraging Christian music that we all love. Walk into the girls' room--very lighthearted and slightly romantic. ; ) Walk into the boy's room--inspiring, majestic, heroic movie music. Yeah, it's pretty fun. ; ) My favorite song right now is "After the Last Tear Falls" by Andrew Peterson. (The version from 2014 is awesome, but so is the older one too. Pick your favorite.) ; )
• Ants. Yeah, really, I'm grateful for our ant invasion! It gave Buddies a project to do when she ran out of schoolwork, and she was so cute and "adult" doing it. She had me help her handle the vacuum a bit, but she mostly did it all by herself. She found where they were coming in and was full of ideas to block the hole, get ED (she meant DE for diatomaceous earth) or poison for them, etc. After a while, she decided she needed a break, and we had popsicles together. ; )
• Inspiration. The little people in my family (soon I'll have to call them "medium people" because they are only getting bigger) are so hilarious and inspiring. Together we discussed what it would be like to have a world completely made of chocolate, or bagels, or noodles. ; ) I made them a pretend newspaper the other day using some of their ideas, and it was so much fun.
• Direct access to my Maker. Anytime I need to talk, He's there!

Today, what are you grateful for?

The Deacon with the Toffee

When I was little, at least younger than six, my family went to a Southern Baptist Church. I remember very few things from that church—random Sunday school memories, the way my classroom looked, and names and faces here and there. (One of my classmates works at a local Chick-fil-a. It surprised me a lot when I first recognized him! That’s off topic though…) One of the things my brain chose to remember though is a dear, old Southern Baptist deacon who kept toffees in his pockets to give to little children. He may have only given me one once, but I still remember it and still love that candy. I’ve never seen him again—he’s probably with the Lord—but in his own small way he blessed a very shy little girl.

In my post "In the 'Out'" I mentioned that everywhere you are there are always people to minister to who are in the out with you. I often find it hard to figure out who to talk to at social events. I don’t always exactly fit into one of the “categories”. I’ve discovered that the categories I work best with (not to say I shouldn’t try with all of them) are those of the little children and the lonely strangers.

Sometimes the little children are running around so fast there’s no time to have a conversation with them, and sometimes the strangers are so shy (or move on after a while) that it’s hard to find ways to be good friends with them.

Then I remember my Toffee Deacon. I remember the lady who smiled at me as we passed each other on the way to the refreshment table at a wedding reception (mostly stranger there—I was a fish out of water). I remember the young man who asked me out of the blue how my stories were going. I remember the young lady who introduced herself at a conference of 3,000 people and was my heaven-sent friend for the next two days. I remember the girls I’ve randomly met and been pen-pals with for a few years. All small instances that made those days better, influenced my life for the better, and gave me friendships if only for a few moments.

So, I’ve decided to smile. To listen. To be their friend as much as they will let me. It hurts a little when one of the ones I was closer to moves on. It hurts a little to think that the little children may not remember me as well as I remember my Toffee Deacon. But I am blessed to know that this is doing the work of love by being the best friend I can.

MercyMe’s song “The Generous Mr. Lovewell” (one of Daddy’s favorites) pretty much sums it up for me. (I suggest looking it up, but please remember that YouTube is a secular website so be careful to guard your hearts and minds through Christ Jesus.)

Have a beautiful day!

Memories of His Mercy

"Let us remember the loving-kindness of the Lord and rehearse His deeds of grace. Let us open the volume of recollection, which is so richly illuminated with memories of His mercy, and we will soon be happy."

~Alistair Begg

New Experiences Every Day

One of my new experiences lately (besides having pop rocks--they crackle all the way in the back of your brain or at least that's what it feels like!) has been to make my own blog button for this corner of the cyber world. You may have seen on the sidebar the one I made for Noble Novels. Well, I didn't quite like the size it came out so I did a little more experimenting on this one. (I also had to do some experimenting over because I forgot how the program I was using works.) ; ) It was a ton of fun, and I'm very happy with how it came out.

So there it is. If you'd like to add it to your own sidebar first save the picture to your computer. Then go to your blog's layout page and add the gadget for images. They'll give you an option to make it a link, and you can just copy the url for my blog over there. Then, if I'm not making any sense at all, cry and Google (that is a verb) better instructions. ; )

Another new experience has been to do the Bible Bee for the first time ever! It's been so much fun and a bit of good work too! The host family is from our church and only lives half a mile away, so we've gotten to help out a little bit. ; ) It's been really great to make new friends and to become better friends with the old ones. But the best part is that it makes me open the Word every day and actually use my brain to discern what God is saying. I unfortunately don't have any pictures for y'all, but I'll try to get some sometime. ; )

Oh, and pop rocks. Um, they are truly very cool; but BE WARNED, it's a really weird sensation... ; )

Do Not Grow Weary

"And you will arrive in heaven used up. And He will give you a whole new you. And He'll say, "Well done, good and faithful servant. You used yourself up for Me just like I did for you." ~Daddy, on having a servant's heart and not growing weary of giving yourself

I'm so grateful for good family conversations. It interrupted the beginning of algebra, but what I did learn was more important. ; )

In the "Out"

The restaurant was crowded with a myriad of hungry people and at least six television sets blaring away. We were scheduled to meet some friends there to share dinner, and when we arrived we scattered throughout the various booths they had reserved for us. One of them was already packed with four young adults, but they managed to squeeze in a couple of my siblings. The littlest girls joined their little friends in another, and my dad and mom sat with the adults. There was one booth left for three more people—those of us who were in the “out”.

My two middle sisters and I looked each other over. There was no more room for us with the young adults, none for us with the little girls, and we certainly weren’t adults. We had as much fun as we could muster staring each other and trying to catch snatches of the conversation in that wildly fun booth.

One of the dads walked by with an extra piece of pizza and kindly asked us if we wanted it because if not he would give it to the big kids. We said we didn’t want it, and he carried it away. I wasn’t a big kid? After all I was older than at least three of the young adults in that booth.

A few of the friends left and my middle sisters took the opportunity to take their places for the last remaining moments at the pizza place. I was all alone.

It really was all right. Our friends were so sweet to buy us pizza, and I had a great time just being near them. It still bothered me though, as have other experiences a lot like this.

Looking back (hindsight is always 20/20), I’ve realized a few things I should have thought of…

1.      Pizza is awesome. Nuff said.

2.      We should have had more fun. My middle sisters and I could have stopped staring at each other and came up with a crazy story idea or something.

3.      There are always other people in the “out” too. I should have realized that my middle sisters probably felt the same way I did and found ways to encourage them.

4.      When people leave me out they don’t usually mean anything by it. There really was no more room in that booth. When my sisters joined them—hooray for them!

5.      That dad didn’t mean anything by his words. I was told twice that day that I looked younger than I actually am. : ) (And I should take that as a compliment…)

6.      I can join the adults! In this case there wasn’t room for me, but sometimes they have more interesting and encouraging things to say than do those of my peer group.

7.      God is always there. Somewhere in C.S. Lewis’s revolutionary essay “The Weight of Glory” he mentions that in heaven we will be famous. Not famous with other people—no, everyone is equal—but famous with God. How beautiful is that? I can be fully known by Him and never forgotten!

So next time I am “in the out”, I need to remember that there are always things to do and people to love there too. : )

Better Than Our Dreams

I thought this quote was worth sharing especially since it applies to all areas of life. : )

 

"Some people warn girls against making an idol out of marriage. We can certainly make idols of anything--but we girls don't so much make an idol out of marriage as we do out of our own expectations, our own way, our own desires. Marriage is not the problem, and an emphasis on marriage is not the problem. The problem is when we don't view the life that God has given us as being better than our dreams--because we don't see God's mind as being better than ours. How much you love God's handiwork in your life--trials, challenges, and all--is an indication of how much you love God. And we don't mean how warm and spiritual you feel when you're singing praise and worship songs; we mean how much you love and delight in Who He actually is and what He actually does. As R.J. Rushdoony says, 'Reality reflects the mind of God, not man.' God is revealing Who He is in the circumstances He creates for us, in the way He crafts us, in the families He places us in. If you really love God, you will love what He does in your life."

~from It's (Not That) Complicated by Anna Sophia and Elizabeth Botkin

(ch. 13 "Not Another Chapter on Contentment", pg. 231) 

Do Cows Eat Dandelions?

You gotta' love it when you're writing a book, and you assert that cows
like to eat dandelions. Your editor mother says that you had better
research that. She calls the neighbor's cow expert of a son, and he
decides that we should switch it out for clover. Editing sure is fun... : )

A Whirlwind Weekend

Last weekend (and the two weeks leading up to it, might I add) was a whirlwind of preparations, practice, and finally the big day of our performance in the chorale! I thought I would share with you some of the things I am thankful for from the Christian Heritage Conference.

 

I'm thankful for...

Parents who were willing to take the plunge to spend the time, money, and effort on getting us to this great event. They trotted us around to stores so we could find clothes for the chorale, took us to several extra practices, and actually waived the usual school schedule so we could practice our brains out.

All our friends from church and the church universal who practiced with us and shared their unique versions of jokes.

A mom who was willing and able to cook tons of food, put up with 2 3/4 teenage girls asking for clothing advice, and stay up 'til two Thursday night/Friday morning making sure everyone had socks and the like.

The neighbors' cows (with the sheep leading!) being driven down the road in front of our house. That broke up the routine of a very busy day and gave us something to talk about.

A big sister who loaned me one of her denim skirts for the weekend.

A dad who got up at four thirty on Friday morning to drive us there. (For four hours, starting out in the fog to boot!)

A "baby" sister who kept asking her highly intellectual equivalent of "Are we there yet?"

GPS.

Those cool name tags that you just have to snap yourself with every year. (For old time's sake.)

This year's amazing, inspiring speakers--Ken Ham, R.C. Sproul Jr., and Israel Wayne. There were many more, but those are all the ones I heard between being in the chorale and arriving a little late. : ) I enjoyed hearing Mr. Ham's behind-the-scenes on his recent debate with Bill Nye. Mr. Wayne gave a historically interesting and inspiring talk called "What About Socialization?" where I learned that the most important thing in a child's life is that their heart belongs to their parents. (He was mainly talking to the parents but I found some application.) : ) He did a great job considering the fact that he had bronchitis, a sinus infection, an ear infection, and had visited urgent care the night before.

The curriculum hall--especially the Lamplighter booth! Do you think they know that all the beautiful books spread out draw me in? A scratch and dent copy of Comfortable Troubles came home with me. : )

The wonderful performers who blessed us with their music before the sessions and during the Family Night. We were treated to music from bluegrass to classical and even got to witness a skit on homeschooling. I most enjoyed the family with the adorable triplets and the Dunn Mountain Boys. (Not to mention the people I know and was there to cheer for!)

The Fellowship Dinner where we split up by regions and got to meet new people in our general area. Aimee and I gained a new pen-pal, and Paul found that boys universally love computer coding and animal trapping.

Chorale practices!!! (You knew this was coming.) This was our main reason for going, actually, and it was very rewarding. The two directors and the piano player worked together to make sure we sounded amazing. They handled us in a sometimes hilarious and sometimes serious way. I'll never forget having to practice putting the 's' on the end of a word on the next one and repeating "endle--ssbe" over and over. The words of the songs were very beautiful, and they didn't neglect talking about them either. There was even a complete Gospel presentation mixed in with the technical work.

All the little children. The adorable little girl who smiled at us while we tried to listen to a session, the chunky baby boy who greeted us with the universal salute of a finger up his nose, and the curly headed tot who waved goodbye to me as their family's van left the parking lot.

Food, glorious food! Especially the ham sandwiches.

The marvelous friends who decided to finance two hotel rooms for our family on Friday night. (We are thanking God for you! You know who you are.)

The comforts of said hotel room and the family party we had that night. Popcorn, Studio C episodes, and lots of laughter combined to make that night memorable.

Breakfast the next morning with about twenty other homeschoolers in the tiny hotel breakfast room. : ) 'Nuff said.

All the wonderful volunteers, the Craig and Bradrick families, and everyone else who made sure this conference happened.

A gigantic-ly tall "little" brother to escort me places. We did four flights of stairs together.

Elevators and escalators so you don't have to do four flights all day!

A "baby" sister who wore black and white just to match our performance clothes. So sweet!

Comfortable black shoes to wear on those crowded risers. I'm afraid the abundance of sopranos and altos squished the guys so hard that some had to share music. : )

The performance! The members of the audience I talked to later said it was wonderful, but I know the best part was being up there in the midst of the choir singing out God's praises at the tops of their lungs. The words were so beautiful, and when I sang "I could feel God's pleasure."

The funny dynamics of trying to fit 250+ young adults into the hallway behind the stage. I knocked the doorstop loose twice moving around people, so my gigantic-ly tall "little" brother and one other young man had to help we with it since it was a particularly rebellious doorstop. : )

The ending session and the congregational singing afterwards. Gotta' love the universal church!

Goodbyes with our new pen-pal.

Dinner on the long drive home and the awesome discussions about vision, roles, and so on that were held above the sound of the pounding rain.

Sleep. : )

Church the next morning where our favorite 93-year-old man accompanied the song he was leading on the piano. : )

 

Altogether it was an encouraging, exciting weekend, and I'm so grateful that I got the chance to praise God in song with so many other brothers and sisters.

Godly Womanhood

"Godly womanhood ... the very phrase sounds strange in our ears. We never hear it now. We hear about every other type of women: beautiful women, smart women, sophisticated women, career women, talented women, divorced women. But so seldom do we hear of a godly woman - or of a godly man either, for that matter. We believe women come nearer to fulfilling their God-given function in the home than anywhere else. It is a much nobler thing to be a good wife, than to be Miss America. It is a greater achievement to establish a Christian home than it is to produce a second-rate novel filled with filth. It is a far, far better thing in the realms of morals to be old-fashioned, than to be ultra-modern. The world has enough women who know how to be smart. It needs women who are willing to be simple. The world has enough women who know how to be brilliant. It needs some who will be brave. The world has enough women who are popular. It needs more who are pure. We need women, and men, too, who would rather be morally right than socially correct."
― Peter Marshall

Fun Late Summer Memory

This was such the fun and educational experience! And the kittens were
absolutely adorable. : )